Nat Case '88

In 1991, about three years out from graduation, I started making maps at Latitudes Map & Travel Store. The map publishing operation evolved into Hedberg Maps, and the titles we publish keep shifting as the map world changes around us. My favorite part of map making is fieldwork-walking and driving, checking information and getting a sense of what's important is (to me at least) an essential part of making a good map that reflects the place it depicts.

I'm also interested in some of the basic philosophical questions about maps and mapping; there's been a lot of work done over the last twenty years deconstructing maps' received sense of authority, but so far this has not been replaced by anything nearly as satisfying. I'm finding that parallel discussions in the art world (recent best read: The Invention of Art by Larry Shiner) profoundly inform my thinking.

I'm not working within the structure of "fine arts" anymore, but I feel I am a "picture-maker," and that the things I learned about seeing, making, and reflecting at Carleton have carried through into my daily work 18 years later.